Teachers not allowed to teach the holocaust anymore?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I agree.

It only has the benefit of conveying actual (worrisome) info, rather than hysteria.

It's the same information in a different order.

[Drake Tungsten]

Is it a how-to?

Is it that complicated? I thought it was just gas-burn-repeat...

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Is it a how-to?

The CIA has got a lot to learn from Nazi techniques.

[Sandman]

Without any hard numbers in either article, I'm going to guess that the number of teachers actually doing this could be tiny.

The Israeli-Arab conflict and the Crusades are not important enough to warrant any teaching time.

[Drake Tungsten]

The CIA has got a lot to learn from Nazi techniques.

That makes no sense, even for you...

[Fake Boris]

I know, I'm too gentle — it's actually the other way around.

I just felt like honouring your change of colors with one of my own.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by notyoueither
It's the same information in a different order.

Yes. But without the moronic title, and with a more "general PC-ness" approach to it (history of slavery), whereas the daily mail focuses on dhimmitude.

Also, I wasn't sure if the daily mail was writing something actually true, or if it was an entire fabrication (wouldn't be a first in the British press). The article I posted at least gave the source's name, and I could find the full report thanks to it.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Sandman
The Israeli-Arab conflict and the Crusades are not important enough to warrant any teaching time.

Just how many hours of history class do your students take during their scolarity? Three?

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Spiff

French education system

I've met many French here in Spain and while I'm absolutely bored by the low level of the uni system the French actually feel challenged and say it's so much "harder" than in France. What a low level of teaching that must be over there.

But then this is uni not primary or high school.

[Spiffor]

For further reference, here is the part of the 48-page report that deals with the issue:

6. Teacher avoidance of emotive and controversial history

Teachers and schools avoid emotive and controversial history for a variety of reasons, some of which are well-intentioned. Some feel that certain issues are inappropriate for particular age groups or decide in advance that pupils lack the maturity to grasp them.

Where teachers lack confidence in their subject knowledge or subject-specific pedagogy, this can also be a reason for avoiding certain content. Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.

In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship. Some teachers also feel that the issues are best avoided in history, believing them to be taught elsewhere in the curriculum such as in citizenship or religious education.

For example, a history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils. In another department, teachers were strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination. In another history department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils, but the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 because their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques.

Where teachers model the processes of critical enquiry that characterise the adult discipline of the subject, history teaching may well clash with a narrow and highly partisan version of family or communal history in which some pupils have been reared. In some settings, emotive and controversial history is avoided because it is considered irrelevant to the needs of pupils.

In an all-white school, little black history may be taught at all on the grounds that there are no black pupils to whom it would be relevant.

In some schools, teachers also respond to the students’ wishes to avoid history being complicated and problematical. This clearly affects the teaching of emotive and controversial history.

7. Lack of balance in teaching emotive and controversial history
In selecting content to be taught within existing frameworks and specifications, the way that teachers handle emotive and controversial history can have a negative impact on pupils.

Recent research on the impact of the teaching of the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition at Key Stage 3 shows that where black people are portrayed as victims, then Afro-Caribbean pupils and their parents can feel alienated and disconnected as a result. The same is true among black pupils where there are hardly any black faces
represented at all in their history curriculum. Equally, in certain educational settings, white working-class pupils in the minority can feel alienated if the role of white abolitionists in the process of abolition is so downplayed that all credit is given to economic factors and black resistance in ending the slave trade.

There is also the tendency to introduce stories of disasters, technological and economic inferiority and brutality to motivate students. Such perspectives can easily lead to students dismissing the past and its people as stupid and inferior.

8. Teacher avoidance of risk-taking
For the various reasons listed above, history teachers can avoid taking risks with their teaching including the risk of teaching emotive and controversial history.

Part of this may be due to uncertainty as to what emotive and controversial history encompasses. For example, black history has a growing presence in the curriculum, but how many history lessons deal explicitly with gay and lesbian issues?

Upon reading this, it appears clear to me it's not a problem of dhimmitude specifically. But a problem of PC-ness becoming increasingly present in history curriculum, and individual teachers or departments trying to adjust to it (obviously, this part of the report shows situations where it's badly done - another part of the report gives examples of good practices).

I hope this report will result in good government guidelines, which could also inspire other countries where the general history curriculum can clash with the particular histories of various communities.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Ecthy
I've met many French here in Spain and while I'm absolutely bored by the low level of the uni system the French actually feel challenged and say it's so much "harder" than in France. What a low level of teaching that must be over there.

But then this is uni not primary or high school.

French unis generally suck, unless you're in medecine, or in a selective "superior school" (which generally are public).
They also become better in later classes, as the demands upon the students increase.

OTOH, French highschools are pretty good, at least those in middle class neighbourhoods.

France is one of these few countries that pay more money per highschool student than per uni student.

[TheStinger]

Whilst it is clearly appalling that teachers feel they cannot teach certain subjects because of misconceived attidudes in their local communities this report should mean plans are put in place to change it

[Arrian]

And I must admit, the Daily Mail seems to have reported something... true. I'm amazed.

-Arrian

[Spiffor]

Exactly. Well, maybe the plans aren't in the works yet, but at least there's now data and suggestions so that the govt does something.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Spiffor



Just how many hours of history class do your students take during their scolarity? Three?

Dunno. Never did anything about the crusades, it would have been lost amongst the more relevant stuff. Ditto for the Israel-Arab conflicts.